American Go E-Journal » Go News

By setting up tables in the corridor at Hebrew University’s mid-December “Japan Day” in Jerusalem, go organizers Shavit Fragman and Barak Gluska “trapped many of them in ‘geta’ and made them stop, look, ask and learn about go,” reports Fragman. A Hebrew University graduate, Fragman said the school’s spacious Maiersdorf building – where the Japan Day activities were held – was “an ideal place to promote go.” Some students were new to game, while others had played it years ago, and Fragman says that “Some were very enthusiastic about opening a club at the campus.” Nearby, a group of students sang some Japanese songs, a tea ceremony workshop attracted interest, and an artist named Noda gave a lecture about Japanese wood printings. Officials from the Japanese embassy’s culture department visited the Japan Day events, and Professor Ben Ami Shiloni lectured about the relations and differences between Japanese and Jewish traditions, featuring many anecdotes and insights. “Special thanks go to Hadas Kushelevich, a Masters student at the East Asia studies, who organized the event and supported our success,” adds Fragman, “As Hadas proposed, we will organize a go evening at the student’s Bar-Aton club.” Click here www.go-mind.com/gallery.php for a gallery of event photos.

Young American go players can now sign up for the 19th annual Redmond Cup Tournament. Preliminary games will be played on the Internet, courtesy of IGS-PandaNet, and the four finalists will be invited to the 2010 US Go Congress to play the final games. There are two divisions in the Cup; the Junior league for those aged less than 12 years and the Senior league for those 12 and older, but younger than 18, on August 1st 2011. Competitors in the Senior League must be playing at dan strength, in the Junior 5 kyu or stronger. The participants must be members of the American Go Association or the Canadian Go Association and either residents of the U.S., Canada or Mexico or citizens of the United States living anywhere in the world, provided that they are also members of the AGA. The tournament director for the Redmond Cup is Michael Bull; Ing rules of Goe for all games. To register e-mail youth@usgo.org with your name, address, phone #, date of birth, email address, AGA rating, and citizenship. The registration deadline is February 15, 2011 The Cup is sponsored by Michael Redmond 9P and his family, the American Go Association and the American Go Foundation. Photo: 2010 champions, Oliver Wolf 2d (l) Sponsor None Redmond (c), Henry Zhang 1K (r). Photo by Ling Shan. – Paul Barchilon, Youth Editor.

With large cash prizes and free registration, why not sign up for the YKNOT? Nearly 100 have already signed up, and the registration deadline for the Young Kwon Online Tourney (YNOT) has been extended to this Thursday, January 13. “All levels are welcome,” says organizer Edward (Zhiyuan) Zhang, adding that “There are only a small number of players 5k and below enrolled.” Click here for free registration; AGA life members who live outside of U.S. are also eligible. The five round tournament is scheduled for January 22, 23, 29, 30 and February 5; 1p EST for dan divisions and 6p EST for kyu divisions. Basic time is 1 hour for dan and 30 min for kyu players and overtime for both is 5 periods of 30 seconds. Sponsor Young Kwon 7d believes that “kyu players can improve their strength quickly by recognizing the shapes and patterns, rather than reading/solving the problems.” Thanks to Myungwan Kim 9P’s efforts, the Korean Baduk Association has agreed to award KBA certificates to winners in three divisions (KBA 1 dan for 1k-4k division; 4 dan for 1d-3d; 6 dan for 4d-6d). For first-time web camera users, the TD’s (Skype ID: AGATD1) offer a live Q/A and testing at 1-2 pm on Saturday 1/15. Players may try to connect (or video chat) with “AGATD1” on Skype by then.

Tron: Legacy actress Olivia Wilde was apparently the inspiration for the inclusion of go in the holiday hit. “That was my nerdy idea because Go is the one game that humans consistently beat computers at,” Wilde said in a December 16 interview in the Times-Union. Taking on an “excited nerd voice,” Wilde said “We should have something about Go, because people who know about it will know computers can’t beat humans and it’ll be this cool reference to what humans can do that computers can’t. So we had that line where I say, ‘Flynn usually beats me.’ I think that people who know might get a little bit of a chuckle out of that.” Wilde also references Buddhism’s “beginner’s mind” in describing her character, Quorra. Kudos to EJ reader “ptw” who noted that Wilde “doesn’t seem to be an AGA member, but having a spokesperson with her combination of intelligence and notoriety would be quite useful in promoting go in the US.”

More than two dozen go players recently celebrated Jin Chen 7d’s life by playing the game Chen loved. The Seattle Go Center hosted the 2011 Jin Chen Memorial Tournament on January 2, with 26 players from across the country competing in the 3-round event. Many more visited the Center to watch the tournament and to pay their respects to the parents of Jin Chen, “a near master of one of the most complex strategy games in the world,” who accidentally fell to his death in January 2009. The tournament was held the day before what would have been Chen’s 24th birthday. The event showed that “friends and family of Jin Chen are moving on and celebrating,” Shan Chen told the E-Journal. “The Seattle Go Center has a great history and cultural values, and we are proud that Jin is part of it.” Click here for the Bellevue Reporter’s account and here for more photos of the tournament.

Judging by the flood of fan mail we received over the holiday break, The Path of Go — the new Xbox LIVE game – is quite the gaming hit, at least in the go community. “I just played The Path of Go with my 8 year old grand daughter and we could not get her to stop,” writes longtime go player and organizer Ernest Brown. “The three year old wanted to try also. This should be a great thing for promoting go. In fact I believe we will get a bump in people wanting go lessons similar to the Hikaru No Go phenomena. I think this beginning could attract more attention from the computer gaming community as well. I hope it gets Bill Gates more engaged with go!”

Thanks to everyone who sent in reviews (Path of Go Available on Xbox 12/23/2010); “It’s a fun game,” wrote Joshua Ward. “It has a story mode that I was able to play through fairly quickly. The story mode is good for beginners as it plays entirely on a 9×9 board and teaches them the basics of the game. There is a multiplayer function to the game as well. You can go onto Xbox Live and play against other people on a 9×9, 13×13, and 19×19 board.” Here’s an edited excerpt of Christian Haught’s review: The game’s plot is interesting. You begin by being summoned to the residence of a wise old go master, who teaches you the basics of go. He then informs you of a twin you didn’t know of, who possesses go prowess like you, but who could never learn how to lose with grace. Leaving to pursue the Path of Go, he left his – and now your – master, who allows you to leave to look for your twin. This is an interesting setup for the game, as it hints to leading to a suspenseful final game between you and your twin, who has an odd habit of leaving games unfinished, which the masters you meet along the way ask you to finish. The control system for the game is relatively simple to understand, graphics were really well done and the three dimensional effects are impressive, adding a sense of depth and realism to the game. The insertion of your xbox live avatar into the game is also carried out quite well, as they make it seem as though your avatar belongs in the game, not just coded in. The settings in which the game takes place are also beautifully put together, and look like places you could find in nature. The computer that you play against is also decently strong, sometimes even forcing players who are more then just beginners into a corner. I wonder how that will work with players who are new to the game, but I imagine that this will force newer players to improve at a more rapid rank. Even if you have never played a game of go in your life, the game starts out with an excellent tutorial that introduces many of the beginning basics. These are, of course, added onto as the game proceeds, but these few beginner tips will allow you to get the basic understanding of the game and begin your journey into becoming a skilled go player. I imagine that most players will be at least 18k in rank, if not higher, by the end of this game.- click here for the original version of this review

Moon Dowon continues her winning streak in Jeongganjang Cup: Korea’s Moon Dowon 2P (r in photo) kept Team Korea on top with her win over Japan’s Chinen Kaori 4P (l) in the third round of the 9th Jeongganjang Cup on January 10th. This was another decisive win for Moon, defeating Chinen by 10.5 points. Round four will be played January 11th. Game records from earlier rounds can be found here. Lee Changho knocked out of Siptan: In another of a series of losses, Lee Changho 9P was knocked out of the 6th Siptan by Lee Younggu 8P in the third round of play. Lee lost ground early on and was never able to sufficiently recover and resigned after 152 moves. The Kuksu title match between Lee Changho and Choi Cheolhan 9P is coming up on January 12th, and with Lee’s significant slump and Choi’s strong showing over the past several months, it will be an uphill battle for Lee to retain his title. Kong Jie advances to quarterfinals in RICOH Cup: In the third round of the 11th RICOH Cup, curent title holder Kong Jie 9P defeated Qiu Jun 8P by resignation. Cho Hyeyeon advances to women’s Myeongin final: In the 12th Female Myeongin challenger decision match, Cho Hyeyeon 9P defeated Park Jieun 9P by a decisive 9.5 points. Cho who was recently promoted to 9 dan will now face defending champion Rui Naiwei 9P for the title. This will be the eighth time since 2003 that Rui Naiwei and Cho Hyeyeon have faced each other for the Myeongin title. Cho has won the title only once, in 2004, against Rui. The title match is a best of three series that will begin on January 13th. Lee Changho and Choi Cheolhan in Kuksu Final:In the third and final round of the 54th Kuksu challenger decision match, Choi Cheolhan 9P defeated Kim Jiseok 7P by resignation. Choi will now face current Kuksu holder Lee Changho 9P in the title match. This will be Choi’s fourth time playing in the Kuksu final. He has won the title twice and lost it once, all three previous matches were against Lee Changho. Lee has played in the Kuksu final eighteen times since 1990 and won the title ten times. Round 2 Maxim Cup Results: Defending champion Choi Cheolhan 9P defeated Yang Jaeho 9P by resignation in second-round play of the 12th Maxim Cup. In other second-round play, Kang Dongyun 9P defeated Won Sungjin 9P by resignation.- JustPlayGo; edited by Jake Edge

Go west, go players. The Ventura County Go Club has moved 10 miles west to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf coffeehouse in Camarillo, CA after the Borders in Thousand Oaks – where the LA-area club has met for six years – closed recently. “We will continue to meet Wednesday evenings, at the new time of 6:15-9:45p,” says organizer David Whiteside. Meetings at the new location — 824 Arneill Road in the Central Plaza Shopping Center — started January 5.

Longtime American Go Association member Samuel P. King died in early December in Hawaii. “Judge King published one of the first English go books called “The Theory and Practice of Go” written by Oscar Korschelt (1880) which he translated from German to English with George Leckie,” reports Sid Kobashigawa of the Honolulu Go Club. The 94-year-old King, a leading figure in Hawaii – click here to read more about his fascinating life – was an AGA member for more than 35 years; his AGA membership number is 415.

The Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, Guo, and ZhiQiang, are sponsoring the 2011 Jujo Jiang Tournament. This will be an AGA rated, one day, four round tournament, with prizes in 5 divisions: Open, High Dan, Expert, Intermediate, and Novice. The entry fee is $35 for all ages, with a $10 discount for current AGA members. More information can be found on the GoMasters website.